FBI Director Christopher Wray on Sunday revealed strong smartphone encryption has prohibited his agency from gleaning data from more than half of the devices it attempted to access in the past 11 months, hindering progress in a wide range of ongoing investigations.

More than a year after the original filing, a judge has ruled that the FBI is not required to disclose any information on how it entered the iPhone 5c gathered as potential evidence in the San Bernardino shooting incident.

Just prior to a hacker's conference, a participant has revealed that the iPhone 5s Secure Enclave has been hacked, and the decryption key for it has been revealed. However, at present, there is nothing for iPhone users to immediately worry about.

BlackBerry has received approval from the National Security Agency (NSA) to sell tools for securing phone calls and text messages to the United States government, with the former smartphone producer joining Apple on the list of companies endorsed for federal government use.

A European Parliament committee has published a draft report proposing that the ability for citizens to protect their data with encryption should be protected, including banning any possibility of government sanctioned backdoors to encryption protocols that could be used by law enforcement officials.

Apple and other tech companies must provide government intelligence agencies access to encrypted messaging services, the United Kingdom's Home Secretary declared in the wake of the Westminster terrorist attack, claiming there must be "no place for terrorists to hide" from surveillance.

A hacker group attempting to hold Apple ransom with claims it has hundreds of millions of iCloud credentials in its possession recently sent a batch of 54 UK-based accounts for testing, all of which were deemed legitimate.

Apple issued a statement in response to Thursday's WikiLeaks release of CIA-gathered iPhone and Mac exploits, saying a preliminary assessment reveals the vulnerabilities to be years old and long since patched.

The U.S. Attorney General coordinating the prosecution of 214 of the demonstrators arrested during the inauguration has declared that the cell phones, including iPhones, obtained during the arrests will be unlocked in the next few weeks.

While the revelations that the CIA has its own device penetration department, including a section for Apple equipment, a closer look at the revealed data shows an agency struggling with the realities of modern surveillance, and a increasingly sophisticated investigation target base.

Apple late Tuesday issued a response to the WikiLeaks CIA data dump, saying "many" of the supposed iOS exploits have already been addressed in the most recent version of its flagship mobile operating system.

A new batch of 8,761 files was released on Tuesday by WikiLeaks that alleges that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has a dedicated iOS exploit team -- and lacks the ability to keep the attack vectors under lock and key.

Cellebrite, the digital forensics company believed to have helped the FBI break the security of the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone, may have repurposed other existing cracking tools used for jailbreaking iPhones, according to a new cache of files allegedly sourced from the security firm.

A program in the United Kingdom to allow members of the armed forces to discuss military secrets using a smartphone will now involve a modified iPhone 7 with hardened security, replacing insecure Android devices

As part of a security and privacy revamp, Facebook is offering users worried about their privacy and potential account compromises a new authentication procedure, one that relies upon a physical security key to perform extra authentication before an account can be accessed.

Cellebrite, the Israeli digital forensics firm thought to have provided the FBI with assistance to break the security of the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone, has confirmed it has been the victim of a security breach of one of its servers.

Thanks to the recent encryption debate many smartphone owners are keenly aware of personal data stored on their iPhone, from contacts to calendar entries to photo metadata and more. Newly leaked documents relating to Israeli digital forensics firm Cellebrite demonstrate how much of that information is available to law enforcement agencies, at least when a device is left unencrypted.